by Rosemary Redfern

Created on: February 25, 2009

Success is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. What one person views as a successful outcome is seen by another as not achieving the aims. It's the glass that's half empty or half full depending on how you view it.

One definition of success is the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted. (Reader's Digest Dictionary). What was planned could be simply completing some chores that had been left. There is a sense of satisfaction with that done. Making a first attempt at watercolor painting, erecting a shelf, painting a room, managing to cope with new aspects of the computer are all forms of success. These all give a sense of achievement. These are not what is generally considered when you think of someone being successful.

Success is more often taken to mean financial gain, preferably with great wealth involved, achieving celebrity status in the eyes of the public and being perceived to be successful. If this is the kind of success required the objectives have been achieved.

On a personal level success is more subtle. You might manage to gain these public appearances of success and still feel a failure. This is to do with self image. Someone who has passed all their exams, become a top professional in their field but who has not managed to be successful in their emotional intelligence can feel that everyone will find out they are a fraud. They are not a fraud but they don't feel successful.

There are individuals who have had to overcome personal difficulties to gain what they wanted. Richard Branson is apparently dyslexic; but he has created a huge empire by being imaginative and employing people to do what he can't. He has earned the right to feel successful.

There are many people, who plod along doing a mundane job, but doing it well and allowing others to get on with theirs. These individuals are not in the public eye but they are successful because they achieve their aims and help others to achieve theirs. Sometimes the person is a small cog in an office or workshop, but their efforts are invaluable. Sometimes it might be the initiator of a charity to help the underprivileged. They work quietly and unassumingly for years until someone realizes just what they have done. These are a quiet successes.

Success, therefore, has many levels. There is the public face of success, the private success or there is the success that comes with belated recognition. Success can be intensely personal and hidden from the rest of the world but which gives the earner the emotional satisfaction of a job well done. The sense of success is personal. That is the real meaning of success.

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